Linked List: March 29, 2010

Monday, 29 March 2010

WSJ’s Lame Entry in the iPhone Rumors Game ★

The Wall Street Journal:

Apple Inc. is developing a new iPhone to debut this summer and also appears to be working on a model for U.S. mobile phone operator Verizon Wireless, say people briefed on the matter.

Keep in mind there’s a big difference between “is” and “appears to be”. And they have no actual details of the next-generation iPhone. Nothing. Not the A4-family CPU system-on-a-chip. Not the 960 × 640 double-resolution display. Not the second front-facing camera. Not even the third-party multitasking in iPhone OS 4. All they have is that there’s going to be a new iPhone this summer, period. Thanks for the scoop, Yukari Iwatani Kane.

Pageview Pumping ★

MG Siegler:

But what interests me about all this is the underlying war going on between those playing the pageview game, and those that hate the pageview game. To put it another (simplified) way: the war between quality versus quantity.

Siegler comes close to getting it, but falls short. Pageviews, as a metric used for directly billing advertisers, are a scam. Publishers game it with sensational link-bait articles and bullshit tricks like breaking articles into multiple “pages”. Advertisers get stuck paying for valueless impressions. Readers get stuck with the sensational bullshit articles, the tricks (like breaking single articles into multiple “pages”), and suffer through too many annoying ads surrounding actual content.

It is, as Jim Coudal and I argued at SXSW, a race to the bottom. Be careful of the “everyones” who say pageviews are imperfect but the best we can do. They’re the ones who are happy with the web as a market for bullshit.

‘Another Nail in Apple’s Coffin’ ★

Harry McCracken, looking back at Microsoft Bob, 15 years after its release:

Analyst Charles Finnie of Volpe, Welty & Co. called Microsoft’s product a threat to the very existence of Microsoft’s competitor in Cupertino. “Bob is going to be another nail in Apple’s coffin unless Apple can somehow raise the standard yet again on the ease-of-use front,” he told the AP.

Someone Needs to Take Econ 101 ★

Douglas A. McIntyre says that because iPad demand is higher than expected, Apple may have to cut prices. Uh…

Not Much of an Argument, Really ★

Matt Buchanan:

It’s interesting, to say the least, that a device promising to be the best browsing experience — cue Scott Forestall crazy eyes — is in fact reshaping the internet. You could argue it’s for the better, moving sites away from proprietary formats and heavy, resource-sucking designs to more open standards, and more efficient layouts that are easier to use (as many have, convincingly).

What’s the other argument?

Cameron Moll on SXSWi 2010 ★

Cameron Moll:

I’ll confess: Every year, I’m one of those guys that gripes about SXSWi being too big, about the content being poor, and about the assumption that this year is finally the peak year and things will die off next year.

Well, this year, I was pleasantly mistaken.

Agreed.

Brightcove to Add Support for HTML5 Video ★

Jeff Whatcott, Brightcove:

We have a very strong strategic alliance with Adobe, and we continue to believe that it is in our interests and the interests of our customers to be at the forefront of innovation on around the Flash Platform. Our work with HTML5 is in addition to, not instead of, our work with Flash.

This “HTML5 video in addition to Flash” strategy is the way it’s going to go across the board. The question is what sites will serve to browsers like Safari and Chrome, which support both.

Cigarette Book Packaging ★

I’ll take a pack of Kafkas.

HDR Photos of Tokyo ★

Gorgeous. (Via John Nack.)